I was fortunate enough to be in the audience when Gov. Quinn made his stunning pronouncement, and it felt like I was hearing history in the making. The governor’s comments were enormously significant because Illinois and Indiana will play huge roles in deciding what long-term approach is used to keep Asian carp in the Mississippi and Illinois rivers from invading Lake Michigan and spreading to the other Great Lakes.

Asian carp leap into the water behind a government research boat on the Illinois River. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo)

Gov. Quinn later told me that he believes the Lake Michigan and Mississippi River basins can be separated in a way that protects transportation and commerce while halting the movement of invasive species between the two basins via manmade canals in the Chicago Area Waterways System.

“We have to think big,” he said. “There are technological challenges but we are the country that built the Panama Canal and, during the Great Depression, the Bonneville Dam and Tennessee Valley Authority.”

Kudos to Gov. Quinn for his bold stance and for showing leadership on the Asian carp issue.